Colored Milk Drop

[nsaplayer]

I stayed up way to late doing this last night...

thanks to everything I have been reading here, I think I managed to get some fun colored milk drop shots last night. There are alot of these in these forums, but here is my take on it.




A detailed pic of the setup can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsaplay...7619073494664/

The basics:
-Used a HiViz trigger with flash (used the light activated kit, i couldn't seem to get the photogate triggers to work....)
-reflective posterboard to drip on
-turkey baster
-milk
-food coloring
-about 85 million paper towels


Camera:
-Nikon D60
-18-200mm
-SB-600

Post Production:
-cropping
-adjusting levels a tad
-some boosted color, but it didn't need much

Basic steps:
-get set up ready, with camera focused on point where the drop will hit
-add food coloring to spot where drop will hit
-turn off light
-open shutter
-drips trigger flash
-close shutter
-turn on lights
-clean up food coloring stained milk before it ruins your carpet and you dont get your apartment safety deposit back

Issues I had:
-I can't seem to get a single drop to trigger the kit. Have squeeze a whole lot of liquid through the laser beam (see the set up pic link above) to get it to trigger. Maybe if I can manage to get the photogate trigger to work, this will be resolved
-My setup was very unstable. I need to rig something up that is a little less susceptible to tiny movements, ie something that is not held together with duct tape.
-The photo transistor in the HiViz kit seemed to have a "sweet spot" on it, such that when light from the laser pen hit it, it triggered every time. I just had to move both the laser pen and receiver around until i found it.


Thats it, hope its useful!

..........

[Process Junkie]

Wow, this is truly amazing, thanks for the detailed tuotrial and explanatory pictures.

[wonderinggypsy]

Very cool!

[nsaplayer]

rt80639 ,
thanks for the tips! I am definitely going to have to try some of them. I don't follow what you are saying about changing out the resistors or 555 timer things, but I also doing have the kit in front of me right now (on work travel, ugh). I only have a mechanical background, so I don't understand what all of the components in the circuit are really doing. Basically, when I put it together, I opened up the HiViz site and followed their instructions exactly, lol.

Although, I wasn't aware that the photogate stuff could be burnt out so easily... maybe that is why mine won't work. Looks like i need to order some more components.

Looking forward to the more details on the better sound activated trigger!

[hostwaffle09]

Your stability issue might actually be the circuit itself. I'm assuming you're using the delay circuit...pull out the first SCR (the one on the delay circuit not connected to the flash). For some reason, that was causing me all sorts of problems...just remove it and the circuit still should work. I had the same problem...the flash would fire when I tapped the circuit with my finger...

Thanks.

Regards

Hen

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[jgomez65]

This is a really cool pic. And the set up looks like a full lab !!! LOL

But great results, I really like it.

I bought one of those flash trigger kits (noice trigger one) and I am still in the process of putting it together.